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Draft or Dr Clarke<br />
Thank you for your further letter of 11 August setting out in more detail the files you<br />
wish to access.<br />
- has already acknowledged your letter of 1 August and I accept that you<br />
have yet to receive a full reply. However, in that letter you also say that you have<br />
contacted the MOD Departmental Record Officer seeking access to files. This<br />
fragmented approach to the Department is hampering efforts to make meaningful<br />
enquiries about your requests for access to official information. It would therefore be<br />
helpful to know as soon as possible whether you have contacted other parts of the<br />
MOD in London or elsewhere. It is only with full details that we shall be able to look<br />
at the totality of your requests and provide an overall substantive response.<br />
It would also be helpful in any future dealings with MOD about this request to direct<br />
all of your correspondence to the above address. Sec(AS)2 is the MOD focal point<br />
for dealing with all correspondence relating to 'UFOs' and I can assure you that<br />
Sec(AS)2 staffliase with and discuss all related matters with others in the Department<br />
as necessary.<br />
In your letter of 1 August you ask whether individuals contacting the Department<br />
have requested that their personal details remain confidential for the 30-year period. I<br />
think you may have misunderstood the position. It is not a requirement that<br />
individuals should make this request. MOD has an obligation, both in common law<br />
and as an employer, to )Xotect the confidentiality of its current and fanner employees<br />
and third parties. This obligation may only be overridden by consent, where there is<br />
an overriding public interest, or where statutory law ( eg the Public Records Act)<br />
allows. It is for this reason that all personal identifying details of members of the<br />
public must be deleted before third party access is given to any information held on<br />
Departmental files. I should wish to assure you that MOD does not, as a matter of<br />
policy, release personal details to the media when contacted about alleged 'UFO'<br />
sightings. Rather, it is our experience that some members of the public seek actively<br />
to promote their alleged experiences through the media.<br />
You again mention in your letter of 1 August a conversation at the beginning of the<br />
year with the MOD Press Office. As ... said in her letter of 25 July, a<br />
number of enquiries were made to MOD by the media and members of the public<br />
about 'UFO' files being released at that time to the Public Record Office. I cannot<br />
comment on your recollection of what might have been said during your conversation<br />
but I can say that media reports about comments attributed to the then Under<br />
Secretary of State for Defence in respect of 'UFO' files were totally unfounded.<br />
MOD does take a positive approach to the release of information and works on the<br />
presumption that information should be made available. However, for the reasons I<br />
have given above about MOD's legal obligations, this is not always possible.<br />
I am sorry not to be able to give you a substantive response to your letters of 1 and 11<br />
August at this time. Nevertheless, I can assure you that whilst we await information<br />
about any additional requests you have made to the Department, Sec(AS)2 and<br />
Departmental Records staff will continue with their enquiries on your behalf. We<br />
hope to provide a progress report by the end of September.
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